Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document consists of paragraph-long statements by three members of Mujeres Muralistas. The first one is by Consuelo Mendez, who identifies herself as an artist-worker. She articulates her reasons for being a muralist and the importance of having [...]

Pedro Nel Gómez, creator of the controversial frescos of the old city palace in Medellín, which at the time of this writing (2009), houses the Museo de Antioquia—explains his reasons for undertaking that major pictorial series. He also provides [...]

In this document, artist and art historian Eva Cockroft details the history and development of the Chicano mural movement in the United States, focusing on its beginnings as a means of voicing solidarity and political resistance during the United [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains profiles Chicana muralists, Patricia Rodríguez and Judith F. Baca, focusing on their respective artistic developments and their roles in the Chicano Movement, attempting to shed light on the links between social [...]

This document is a transcript of a conference presentation given by art historian Shifra M. Goldman. In her talk, she defends the validity of contemporary Latin American and Chicano art as fields of study for art historians, criticizing detractors [...]

This article introduces readers to Casa Aztlán, a Latino social services center and cultural organization founded in Chicago in 1970, and widely known in the Midwest for its cultural programs. It describes Casa Aztlán’s location in Chicago’s [...]

In this text, John Weber, a distinguished muralist and co-founder of the Chicago Mural Group, responds to a recent article about murals in Chicago and denies that Chicago’s mural scene is unique. He fears that such a term implies that the scene is [...]

In this article, Puerto Rican art historian Marimar Benítez reviews the process Argentine ceramicist Susana Espinosa uses to create murals in Puerto Rico. The artist used wall plaques, plates, and relief plates to achieve works integrated with the [...]

This is a brief article on Dutch artist Karel Appel—founder of the COBRA (COpenhagen-BRussels-Amsterdam) group—who at the time was in the process of completing a mural in one of the streets in Villa El Salvador, the largest “young town” (slum [...]

In this essay, Antonio Muiño Loureda reviews artistic syntheses that have occurred throughout history up to the industrial era, mentioning some of the most significant collaborations of this period. He describes different aspects of the project [...]

This essay by Margarita Nieto details the history of Chicano art in Los Angeles and broader California. Nieto focuses on the artworks and activism of sixteen prominent artists, including Carlos Almaraz, Gronk, Patssi Valdez, Luis Jimenez, and others [...]

In this document, Guisela Latorre examines the emergence of a Chicana muralist program that developed in response to the unequal treatment of women within national Chicano political and artistic movements, which often regarded their participation as [...]

In this essay, Ricardo Romo discusses the vibrant tradition of Chicano muralism, proposing as his goals both an examination of the historical evolution of murals painted in borderland states across the United States (California, Arizona, New Mexico, [...]

In this document, muralist Judith Baca discusses the development of the Chicano mural movement, brought to light in conditions of unrest and injustice in Los Angeles. Baca underlines the unique physical characteristics of Los Angeles that facilitated [...]

This essay by art historian and critic Shifra M. Goldman is a review of two Chicano group exhibitions held in 1981: Califas: An Exhibition of Chicano Artists in California and Murals of Aztlán: Street Painters of East Los Angeles. The former was [...]

This letter by the art historian and critic Shifra M. Goldman responds to a letter from the Chicana artist Judithe Hernandez. The latter’s letter was responding to Goldman’s review of the exhibition Murals of Aztlán: Street Painters of East Los [...]

In this essay, Manuel J. Martinez discusses the origins of Chicano art and proposes that it is an art of social protest at all. According to him, Chicano art is influenced by three sources: indigenous, colonial Spanish, and modern Mexican (or mestizo [...]

This essay, with accompanying inventory and maps, considers the Chicago community mural scene from 1967 through 1979, noting that the medium was employed by artists from a variety of ethnic backgrounds to “ . . . express ethnic, historical, popular [...]

In this essay, Jacinto Quirarte introduces the importance of manifestos when examining the origins of the Chicano movement, and in turn, Chicano art. Manifestos, he asserts, are essential primary documents for understanding the Chicano movement. [...]

In this essay, artist and author Rupert Garcia focuses on two related modes of Chicano art: the mural and the poster. Garcia maintains that Chicano-Latino mural and poster art were both born out of the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Both [...]

This article reports on the scandal prompted by the confiscation of Pesadilla de guerra y sueño de paz [Nightmare of War and Dream of Peace], the mural painted by Diego Rivera for the exhibition Arte mexicano: desde tiempos precolombinos hasta [...]

In this essay, Marcos Sánchez-Tranquilino maps out the differences and points of contact between murals linked to the Chicano Movement of the 1970s and graffiti by Mexican-American youth, specifically youth gang culture. For this essay he uses [...]

The Argentine art critic, Raquel Tibol, asked Diego Rivera 14 questions aimed at identifying his different impressions of the Soviet Union [today, in 1956,] as compared to 1927. The questions were focused on new art, the art market, and the disputes [...]